Carol-Ann sent me these pictures of the Grindelwald Region in the Swiss Alps

Our daughter Carol-Ann who lives with her husband David in London, has sent me the following pictures she took last week in Grindelwald in Switzerland where they both had a wonderful week of hiking, eating and relaxing. 

Under the Eiger mountain

On a hike from First to Bachalpsee

Carol was fascinated with the melting snow patterns

A Swiss mountain fence

So many beautiful alpine Spring flowers

View of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau

Carol loves taking pictures of interesting shapes and patterns

Another shot of the three famous Swiss mountains

A "Sennehütte" in a field of flowers

The Blümlisalp range

A cog rail line

The Schynige Platte cog railway

Fantastic view over the lake of Thun

Thank you Carol and David. You really are a lucky couple. We would have loved to be there with you.

Spring in the Swiss Alps

I get regular emails from nature photographer Fritz Bieri on Beatenberg in the Swiss alps. Mr Bieri takes beautiful pictures on his walks through his mountain region. The latest pictures he sent was on a walk just a week or so ago. The spring flowers are in bloom and present a spectacular view.

Here are some of his pictures:

A line of mist over the alps

A field of crocus flowers

more mountain flowers

Sunset over the Eiger Mönch and Jungfrau

Sunset

You can see more of Fritz Bieri's pictures on his web site: 

http://www.beatenbergbilder.ch/home/home_index_e_.htm

Brisbane experiences a deluge again

For the last few years, Queensland experienced the worst drought in its history. The city's combined dam levels dropped to below 15% and there was a real danger that Brisbane could have run out of water. In the last few months however rain has fallen and the dam levels have slowly increased.

The last couple of days, Brisbane experienced the best rain in over ten years and as of this morning, the dam levels are 73% and rising with more rain forecast for the weekend. Yesterday, Brisbane had more rain in one day than normally falls in a third of the year. The Premier yesterday declared the drought is officially over.

Here are a few pictures from the Courier Mail from yesterday. Unfortunately lots of areas around Brisbane copped floods and water damage. 

Birthday Bear travels to Townsville

The Birthday Bear traveled to Townsville for the weekend to surprise Chris at her birthday party ...

Townsville is a two-hour flight from Brisbane in far north tropical Queensland. 

The job is done....

The job is done, the deck is finished for another year or two....

The last coat is painted

 

A little bare without plants at the moment

Diane inspecting the job

Hopefully Diane will have time to put the plants back soon.

Repainting our decks

Diane's been in my ears for some time saying the decks need repainting. After leaving it on the 'back burners' for some time, we decided the long weekend would be a good time to make a start. So we went and hired a floor sander and got stuck into it. We're about half-way through the job.

The floor sander does a great job

The fiddly-bits have to be sanded manually

The hand sander is ideal for that

Then we washed the sanded areas

First the back bridge is ready for painting

As I said, we're not finished yet but hopefully will be by next weekend.

More to follow.....

Model Train Expo Brisbane 2009

It's a long weekend here in Queensland. I saw in the papers that there is a Model Railway Expo. Well I thought! Somewhere to go. However my better half was not at all enthusiastic to go, so I phoned my mate Martin, who is building a model railway in his den. He was working this weekend but was quite happy to have a couple of hours off to come along. So I picked him up at his workplace and we headed to the RNA Pavilion where the show is held. I was under strict instructions from Diane: "Don't buy anything!!" 

Martin is enjoying the exhibits

Lots of great exhibits

Steam trains, bridges...

more bridges..

.. an Australian Outback scene

Even the London Underground is present

...or overcrowded trains

Me, drooling. "I know dear.. I'm not buying anything...